The 36-year-old man had stayed in Spain from June 16 to 20, reports the Parisian. Nine days after returning to Italy, he suffers from high fever, fatigue, headache and sore throat. The diagnosis falls: he is tested positive for the coronavirus.
Only, the very day of his positive test, he sees pimples appear on his left arm. The next day, small painful blisters bloom on other parts of his body. He then decides to go to the emergency room.
There, doctors suspect monkey pox. The lesions resemble those of the disease and Spain, from where he returned, is the European country most affected by the disease. The samples are final: the thirty-year-old is indeed affected by the disease.
After explaining his vacation to the doctors, they do preventive tests for HIV. They will also turn out to be positive. In September 2021, the patient had yet taken an HIV test which turned out to be negative.
“Clinicians should be aware of the possibility of co-infection with SARS-CoV-2 and monkeypox virus, especially in subjects with recent travel to monkeypox outbreak areas” , explain the authors of the article. The Italian patient suffered from quite marked symptoms. These eventually faded before disappearing after a few days, thanks to a monoclonal antibody administered intravenously.
However, the scientists want to be reassuring: “as this is the only reported case of co-infection by the monkeypox virus, SARS-CoV-2 and HIV”, it is not possible to say “that this combination may aggravate the patient’s condition.